19 of the 35 countries participating in the “Eurovision 2026” international song contest have selected their representatives: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
Medianews.az reports that the first semi-final (May 12) of the contest, which will be held in Vienna, the capital of Austria, will include Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Croatia, Israel, Sweden, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Greece, while the second semi-final (May 14) will include Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Armenia, Switzerland, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Romania, Ukraine.
There are 10 tickets to the final from each semi-final. Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, France, and Italy will join the contest in the final (May 16).
The Eurovision contest, a project of the public broadcasting organization - the European Broadcasting Union, has seen since 1956 Ireland and Sweden win 7 times, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, and United Kingdom 5 times, Israel 4 times, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Norway, and Ukraine 3 times, Spain and Germany 2 times, Monaco, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Serbia, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Portugal once each.
Azerbaijan has participated in 17 contests, placing 8th in 2008 with Elnur Hüseynov and Samir Cavadzade, 3rd in 2009 with Aysel Teymurzade and Arash, 5th in 2010 with Safura Alizade, 1st in 2011 with Nigar Jamal and Eldar Gasimov, 4th in 2012 with Sabina Babayeva, 2nd in 2013 with Farid Mammadov, 22nd in 2014 with Dilara Kazimova, 12th in 2015 with Elnur Hüseynov, 17th in 2016 with Samra Rahimli, 14th in 2017 with Diana Hajiyeva, 8th in 2019 with Chingiz Mustafayev, 20th in 2021 with Samira Efendi, and 16th in 2022 with Nadir Rustamli.
In 2018 Aysel Mammadova, in 2023 Tural and Turan Bagmanov, in 2024 Fakhri Ismayilov and Ilkin Dovlatov, and in 2025 the group “Mamaqama” did not pass the semi-finals.